The present invention relates in general to a personal cervical cell collector, and more particularly, to a personal cervical cell collector that will allow a female person to collect cervical cells in the privacy of her home.
During the 1940's, Dr. George Papanicolaou developed a screening test which bears his name and which has become the most widely used screening technique for detecting abnormal cervical cells. Today, this test is known more commonly as the PAP test or the PAP smear test. Typically, the PAP smear test is performed in the physician's office as part of a woman's routine gynecological examination. If identified early and treated, deaths of cervical cancer are completely unnecessary because up to 100% of the most common types of cervical cancer may be prevented. Compared with invasive cervical cancer which has a cure rate of 50% to 60% in average, the PAP smear test for screening cervical cancer is of great worth. In cytology, normal cervical cells are columnar cells, have medium-sized nuclear, no hyperchromatic nuclei and no mitotic figures. On the side, if cells have no clear cell border, larger and darker nuclei, increased nuclear/cytoplasmic area ratio, increased mitotic figures and a disorderly arrangement, the cells are abnormal. The clinical classification of the abnormal cells has five degrees as follows. The defined class I is normal, class II is inflammation or atrophy (like a menopause variation), class III is cervical dysplasia (between normal cells and cancer cells), class IV is pre-cancer cell (carcinoma in situ), and class V is malignancy.
Typically, the PAP test is performed by inserting a speculum into the patient's vagina to expose the cervix. The surface of the cervix is then scraped by a brush, stick or swab and the exfoliated cells thereby collected are smeared upon a microscope slide for cytological examination.
However, the conventional smear test needs to collect cervical cells firstly and that process needs to insert a collector like stick or swab into the patient's vagina and then reach to the cervix. If the collector is not inserting enough to reach to the cervix, the exfoliated cells collected have no means because of the collected cells are vagina epidermal cells if the location the collector reached is too shallow and it is easy to cause a erroneous judgment. On the contrary, the collected cells are endometrial cells if the collector is inserting too deep and the uterus also may be injured by the collector.
Furthermore, the PAP smear test is nearly always performed in a physician's office by a gynecologist or other medical professional who almost is male. Thus, the test is considered by many women to be uncomfortable and embarrassing. Therefore, a personal cervical cell collector that will allow a female patient to collect cervical cells in the privacy of her home is required.